Heterogeneous Computing environments are networks of loosely coupled computational
nodes with different architectures that map portions of a problem to nodes whose
architecture is best suited to that computation. A proposed architecture, called Micro-
Heterogeneous Computing (MHC), aims to develop an environment that would facilitate
the creation and utilization of computational networks as small as a single workstation.
The scheduling algorithms used to schedule computations to MHC nodes rely heavily on
computation time performance estimates. Thus an appropriately precise performance
estimate is essential in order to enable a scheduling algorithm to make the best scheduling
decisions and thus to maximize the performance of the MHC system. The unique needs
of the Micro-Heterogeneous Computing environment place specific requirements on
performance evaluation techniques that may be used by the MHC scheduling algorithms.
This work evaluates the requirements placed on performance estimation techniques by
the MHC environment. Several potential performance estimation techniques are
evaluated with respect to those requirements. Two empirical techniques - polynomial and
Multi-Chord approximation - are selected as the potential candidates and their
characteristics are evaluated and compared. Based on this evaluation, means of
automatically obtaining performance specifications for MHC computations are created.
Several computational algorithms are implemented on a DSP-based peripheral and their
performance specification is obtained using the newly developed automatic technique.